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Island facilities at least 7,000 migrants over capacity, official warns

More than 12,000 migrants and refugees on Greece’s Aegean islands are crammed into facilities designed to hold up to 5,000 people, the regional governor for the northern Aegean, Christiana Kalogirou, told Skai TV on Wednesday, adding that existing conditions “do not match up with our values.”

In the same interview, Kalogirou said that deteriorating weather conditions have not curbed migrant flows from Turkey to Greece, adding that approximately 500 people have landed on the islands since the beginning of January.

The regional governor called for measures to accelerate asylum procedures and ease crowding on island camps.